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S/2017/904 17-18978 15/33 Annex I Umm Hawsh I. Findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-Finding Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic 1. On the basis of interviews conducted with witnesses, including a visit to the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Barzah to conduct physical examinations of items related to the reported incidents, the documents reviewed and the results of blood sample analyses, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fact-Finding Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic confirmed that the two female casualties reported to have been involved in the incidents in Umm Hawsh on 15 and 16 September 2016 had been exposed to sulfur mustard. Furthermore, the Fact-Finding Mission stated that it had conducted a thorough technical weapon exploitation on a 217-mm-calibre mortar. Supported by the results of laboratory analyses, the Fact-Finding Mission determined that that mortar shell contained sulfur mustard. II. Investigation by the Mechanism 2. The Mechanism formulated possible scenarios to ensure that it approached the investigation comprehensively and in an objective and impartial manner. While the Mechanism sought to collect and analyse as much information as possible in connection with each scenario, by the end of the investigation most of the information obtained supported one scenario: that sulfur mustard munitions, one of which had caused the exposure of the victims, had been fired on Umm Hawsh by an actor. Background 3. Umm Hawsh (also known as Um Hosh) is a village in Aleppo Governorate (Marea subdistrict, I‘zaz District). It is located at coordinates 36°24′51.12″N, 37°12′38.16″E, in the midst of a triangle of three larger cities: Aleppo, I‘zaz and Bab. Umm Hawsh is approximately 23 km north-east of Aleppo city and 35 km south of the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey. It is located in a fork between two motorways to the north of Aleppo, that is, east of the M214 and west of the M20 motorways. 4. In 2004, the population of Umm Hawsh, according to Syrian census data from that year, was 3,542. At the time of the incidents in September 2016, the population of Umm Hawsh was estimated to be 728. 5. Umm Hawsh and the surrounding area fell under the control of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on 9 August 2015. It was taken over by the Syrian Democratic Forces on 30 August 2016. Additional non-State armed groups were present approximately 8 km to the north of Umm Hawsh, in Marea. The forces of the Syrian Arab Republic and its allies were not present in Umm Hawsh at the time of the incidents; the closest that they appear to have been was 8.7 km away in Misqan. By the time of the sulfur mustard incident, the front-line and conflict dynamics had not changed since Umm Hawsh had been captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces on 30 August 2016. At that time, ISIL remained from 600 to 800 m east and 1 km north of the village, with an additional presence to the south of the village